Five Fun Facts About Coming To America
Now that Craig Brewer and Eddie Murphy’s second collaboration, Coming 2 America, is upon us, it naturally has us thinking of the 1988 original, Coming To America, which marked Murphy’s second collaboration with Trading Places director, John Landis. This 33-year-old comedy classic has stood the test of time and still remains as one of Murphy and Landis’ best films. Today, we bow before the African nation of Zamunda and offer up these fun facts about the film and its production!
Eddie Murphy and John Landis clashed throughout the production.
Coming To America reunited director John Landis and star Eddie Murphy, who had previously worked together five years prior on Trading Places; however, this go around the two had a much different attitude toward one another. Their ego clashes and warring personalities would give the production an air of hostility.
“The guy on Trading Places was young and full of energy and curious and funny and fresh and great. The guy on Coming To America was the pig of the world – the most unpleasant, arrogant, bullshit entourage… just an asshole,” Landis told Collider. “On Coming To America, we clashed quite a bit because he was such a pig; he was so rude to people. We had a good working relationship, but our personal relationship changed because he just felt that he was a superstar and that everyone had to kiss his ass. He was a jerk. But great – in fact, one of the greatest performances he’s ever given.”
Murphy told Rolling Stone the following:
“We had a tussling confrontation… We didn't come to blows. Personalities didn't mesh. ... He directed me in Trading Places when I was just starting out as a kid, but he was still treating me like a kid five years later during Coming To America. And I hired him to direct the movie! I was gonna direct Coming To America myself, but I knew that Landis had just done three fucked-up pictures in a row and that his career was hanging by a thread after the Twilight Zone trial. I figured the guy was nice to me when I did Trading Places, so I'd give him a shot… I was going out of my way to help this guy, and he fucked me over. Now he's got a hit picture on his resumé, a movie that made over $200 million, as opposed to him coming off a couple of fucked-up movies – which is where I'd rather see him be right now.”
Despite their unpleasant working experience on Coming To America, the pair would wind up collaborating again six years later on Beverly Hills Cop III.
It’s the first film where Eddie Murphy took on several roles.
That’s right, Coming To America marks the first time Eddie Murphy played multiple characters in the same film. This would go on to become a hallmark of Murphy’s. He would integrate this mutli-character approach into Vampire In Brooklyn, The Nutty Professor 1 & 2, Bowfinger, Norbit, and Coming 2 America, where he and Arsenio Hall reprise their roles as the barbers.
The make-up effects by Rick Baker were totally convincing on-screen and off.
Not only was Coming To America notable for being the first film where Murphy would assume multiple roles; it’s also the film that united Murphy with make-up effects guru Rick Baker, leading to continuous collaborations throughout the 90s and 2000s. Ultimately, it was Baker’s phenomenal old-age make-up that allowed Murphy to totally affix himself to another character, which proved to be believable, both on screen and off.
After the make-up and clothing were applied for the Jewish character Saul, Murphy went out to test the effectiveness of his new getup. He commandeered a golf cart from the Paramount Studios lot and drove from one studio department to another, saying in his regular voice, "Hi. I'm Eddie Murphy." Not one person believed him….
Murphy also used his costume to hit on an old lady, who actually gave him her number. Arsenio recounted this story in a recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “Eddie hit on an old lady once,” Hall said. “Rick Baker let us walk around, he said, ‘Just try it out, move your face, you’ll see how it works,’ and we went out… I think Eddie ran into John Amos, and then he got an old lady’s phone number because she thought he was a real old dude.”
Bonus Fun Fact: By Landis’ account, it was his idea to have Murphy don make-up to play Saul. He alleged it was payback of sorts for all the Jewish comedians of the early 1900s who wore blackface.
McDowell’s was actually a real restaurant — and it was a Wendy’s to boot.
For the film, the McDowell’s restaurant was constructed out of a Wendy’s located on Queens Boulevard, which was closed down for renovations at the time of the production. Of course, the film had obtained approval from Mickey D’s corporate headquarters beforehand; however, the Golden Arches didn’t seem to slide that intel down to their outlets in the Queens Boulevard area.
The day the McDowell’s sign was hoisted up, a manager of from a McDonald’s a half mile up the road stormed in with his lawyer, taking pictures and howling at the set dressing crew that they’d be sued for all they were worth, which we’re sure gave them a chuckle.
Back in 2018, Los Angeles’ Fat Sal’s restaurant transformed their establishment into a McDowell’s pop-up, which was a surprising treat. I mean, who wouldn’t want a Sexual Chocolate Shake?!
There’s also an amusing layer to Coming To America’s McDonald’s rip-off gag that many moviegoers probably aren’t aware of, too, involving John Amos, whose character Cleo McDowell creates the shameless copy of the fast-food giant. Way back in the day, Amos worked at the first-ever McDonald’s in Canada. He also starred in a famous song-and-dance Mickey D’s commercial in 1971, called “Grab a Bucket and Mop.” The scene when Cleo stares strangely at Akeem trying to use a bucket and mop is an in-joke reference to this commercial.
The film intersects with Trading Places.
Coming To America and Trading Places take place within the same universe, and there’s an intersection that bind the two films together. The link threads are Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy, who briefly reprise their Trading Places roles in Coming To America.
In Trading Places, Ameche and Bellamy played greedy capitalists who wind up bankrupt, and in Coming To America, the pair appear as homeless beggars who receive wad of cash from Murphy’s Prince Akeem. Upon receiving the money, Bellamy hilarious states, “We’re back.”
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